REA Group Limited

Good morning, everyone. My name's Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations, and I'd like to thank you for joining us to discuss REA Group's results for the first quarter ended 30th of September, 2025. Before we commence, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to elders past and present. Today, you'll hear a welcome from REA Group's new CEO, Cameron McIntyre. Cam will then hand over to Janelle Hopkins, REA's CFO, We'll provide a brief business update and talk to the financial highlights for the quarter. Following this, we'll be happy to take any questions. And as a reminder, our quarterly numbers are top line results only, so we'll be restricted in the amount of details we can provide. With that, I'll pass it to Cam to get us started.

Thanks, Alice, and good morning, everyone. Look, it's great to be here for my first results presentation as REA's CEO. I'd just like to thank the leadership team and everyone across the business for the warm welcome that I've received this week and for their hard work in delivering another positive quarter. I'd also like to acknowledge Owen's leadership and thank him for his commitment to REA. Owen's built a talented team and his strategic vision and execution has been pivotal in cementing REA as a leading Australian technology company. Given this is my first week, Janelle's going to take you through the group's first quarter business update and financial results shortly. But before handing over, I just want to share a few initial thoughts. So, look, I'm joining REA at a time of opportunity for the business and for our team, and I'm impressed with the strength of the group, the sound strategic foundations we have, and the depth of talent and capability across the organisation. And that all sets us up with a really strong platform for the future. I'm also committed to maintaining REA's culture of innovation and its focus on delivering increasing value for our customers and for the millions of consumers who rely on the platform every month. Today's results are a demonstration of the team's hard work and discipline in what is a strategic or dynamic approach market environment. REA continue to grow revenues and deliver exceptional value supported by unrivaled audience and premium products. Our balance sheet is extremely strong and our customer relationships are deep and new technologies give us real fresh opportunities to create even more value. I am genuinely excited about the ongoing rapid advances in technology and what this offers platform marketplaces like ours. There's clear potential to drive growth, deliver even better consumer experiences and to broaden the products and tools available to our customers. In the months ahead, I'm looking forward to connecting with our customers clearly and working with the team to keep REA on its strong trajectory and catching up with many of you on the call and discuss what's ahead for the business. So with that, I'm going to hand over to Janelle to take you through the details of the quarter's performance.

Thanks, Cam, and good morning, everyone. REAs delivered a good first quarter result, underpinned by double-digit residential yield growth. Looking at the results from core operations for the quarter, revenue was $429 million, an increase of 4% on the prior year. Operating expenses from core operations increased 3% to $175 million. And EBITDA excluding associates was $254 million, an increase of 5%. Strength in underlying fundamentals and an interest rate cut in August continued to support the health of the market, with buyer demand and national house prices reaching record levels. We cycled very strong year-on-year listing comps, and as a result, buyer listings were down in the quarter. However, overall listing levels remained above long-term averages. Our customers have continued to prioritise our market-leading products and services to ensure the best results for their campaigns. Consumer demand strengthened in the quarter, with Australians visiting our platforms in record numbers, and we delivered the highest number of monthly buyer inquiries to our customers in three and a half years. To deliver on REA's purpose of changing the way the world experiences property, our clear strategy has three simple goals. Engaging the largest consumer audience with our personalized property experiences, delivering superior value to our customers with leading products and services, and leveraging unparalleled data insights as we expand our core business and build next generation marketplaces. AI supports each of these objectives and is a clear strategic focus for the business. REA's unparalleled audience, coupled with our proprietary data, place us in a unique position to harness AI unlike any other Australian property portal. We see significant opportunities And while REA has been innovating with AI for some time, our investment is accelerating rapidly. This includes the tools and services we offer to our customers, our consumer experiences, and new ways of working within our business to enhance productivity. Focusing on consumers, while this technology is moving very quickly, currently a very small percentage of our audience is using AI to access our platforms. At present, it sits at approximately We expect this will continue to evolve as the technology advances. While we are watching this closely, from a strategic perspective, we will continue to focus on maintaining and enhancing the channels and experiences that our consumers are using, including through AI. Our audience is the air we breathe, and more people are turning to realestate.com.au than ever before. New audience records were set in the first quarter. with the highest number of people ever visiting the platform, with a record 12.8 million people in August. We achieved almost 148 million average monthly visits, which is 111 million more than the nearest competitor. Let me say that again, that's 111 million more monthly visits. Further cementing our strong leadership position, our unique audience leadership gap extended another 14%, and our exclusive monthly audience increased to 6.7 million people. October's audience data is expected to show continued strength in visits. This means August, September and October are on track to record the highest number of monthly realestate.com.au visits ever. Our personalised experiences ensure property-obsessed Australians deeply engage with our platforms. In Q1, our audience spent an average of 38 minutes a month on realestate.com.au, 25 minutes longer than those visiting our nearest competitor. REA's consumer strategy is centred on converting our large-scale audience to members. Our active membership base continues to increase, up 10% year-on-year. Demonstrating the deep engagement of our active members, this valuable cohort spends 2 hours and 15 minutes on our site each month. The number of listings shared and saved by members increased 11% compared to this time last year, and our personalized property owner experiences helped drive a 35% year-on-year increase in valuable seller leads delivered to customers. Our next generation listings initiative aims to set a new benchmark in property experiences globally. The initiative has been in place for just over 12 months, and it continues to deliver new and enhanced consumer experiences and drive deeper engagement. In Q1, this included launching AI property highlights and property walkthrough videos, and we widened the reach of the make an offer feature on listings. This enables serious buyers to submit online offers to an agent directly through a listing at any time. Further unlocking the power of AI for our members, we also launched an easy to digest GenAI powered market summary to support owners in their decision making. In addition, a new immersive video hub on the app home screen will launch to all consumers in the coming weeks. Turning to our customer highlights. Record Premier Plus penetration supported strong yield growth in our residential business. And our top tier commercial product, Elite Plus, also achieved record penetration. Traction continues to build with our high performance listing solution, Lux. Additional value added in Q1 resulted in penetration almost doubling in the quarter. The new value includes an increased frequency of Lux listings at the top of searches and extending Lux listings beyond the sales campaign to include sold listings. Pro is the most comprehensive subscription in the market. As well as exclusive prospecting, reporting and workflow management tools, Pro offers agents premium branding opportunities to help drive valuable seller leads. During the quarter, agents on Pro received 31% more seller leads than agents without it. Recognising this superior value, several large franchise groups have now signed enterprise-wide pro partnerships, bringing all of their offices onto a pro subscription. For our developer business, which we have now called New Homes, Q1 highlighted continued momentum in that market, with a healthy increase in both visits to New Homes listings and in leads delivered to customers. Looking at our financial highlights in more detail for our property and online advertising business, Our residential business delivered a good result, with revenue growth of 4%, driven by double-digit yield growth, partly offset by lower listings. Q1 national new-buy listings declined by 8%, reflecting particularly challenging comparables. Melbourne and Sydney also declined, down 4% and 6% respectively, although both cities were still very strong in a historical context, recording the second highest Q1 listings over the last 10 years. Buy yield was strong, up 13% for the quarter, driven by a 7% average Premier Plus price rise, growth in add-ons, AMAX in particular, increased subscription revenue and increased depth penetration. GeoMix was broadly neutral for Q1. Our rent business saw continued growth, with revenue driven by high single-digit yield growth, partly offset by a 2% decline in listings. Revenue momentum for commercial and new homes continued in the quarter. Commercial revenue was driven by a 7% price rise and increased debt penetration, partly offset by modestly lower listings across both sale and lease. New homes revenue was also up year on year, with revenue growth outpacing commercial for the first time in four years. This reflected a 7% growth in project profile volumes, increased yield and higher display revenues. Other revenues were up during the quarter with strong growth in media display from the banking and insurance sectors and campaign agent growth from customer acquisition. Our financial services business had an excellent quarter. Investment in core broking platforms and product innovation supported increased broker productivity and broker leads from realestate.com.au also continued to rise up 33% year on year. Ongoing market strength and growth in our broker network supported a 24% year-on-year increase in submissions, which should continue to flow through to further settlements. Settlements for the quarter are up 16%, benefiting from both higher volumes and loan size. Revenue is partly offset by higher broker payout rates in line with higher volumes. And we set a new record in October with our highest ever month on record for broker submissions. Looking at our business in India, As we flagged previously, housing.com is REA India's strategic priority, and a number of recent strategic decisions will enable this business to be our sole focus going forward. The sale of Prop Tiger completed in late September, and in October, we made the decision to discontinue Housing Edge. This follows recent regulatory changes that impacted the Housing Edge offering and made the business model unviable. While exiting Housing Edge will have a negative impact to EBITDA, Noting it contributed approximately $12 million in FY25, this will enable our full focus on our strategic priority, housing.com. As a result of these changes, REA India's revenue declined 20% year-on-year. Housing core revenue saw modest growth. However, this was more than offset by a reduction in adjacency services on the Housing Edge platform as it put in additional controls on the business and lower prop tiger revenues as the business transitioned ownership. For housing.com, driving app traffic and investing in the app experience is the priority. And we've just gone through a major milestone with more than 50% of traffic coming from our app. Apps are the future of the Indian property experience and our strategy continues to deliver positive results with housing continuing to lead app downloads in India. Turning to operating costs. Group call costs were up 3%, reflecting 10% growth in Australia and a 22% decline in India. In Australia, cost growth was driven by higher employee costs from salary inflation and product development, increased COGS reflecting the more than doubling in audience maximiser penetration, higher marketing spend in part due to the timing of our largest customer event, Ready, which was not in the prior year, and increased technology costs due to supplier price rises and investment in AI tools. In India, operating costs declined by 22%, primarily driven by lower revenue-related costs attached to Housing Edge. Removing the impact of Housing Edge and Prop Tiger, group operating costs increased by 7% in Q1. The group's associates contributed a $7 million loss to core EBITDA in the quarter, in line with PCP. This reflected an improvement in moves contribution, driven by 9% revenue growth, offset by investment in Ascent Home Loans, which was not in the prior year. For more information on MOVE, please see News Corp's Q1 results release. And lastly, on the 10th of October, we acquired a 61.5% controlling stake in Canadian-based Planetar Inc., the maker of iGUIDE for $55 million. iGUIDE produces precise 3D virtual tours and floor plans, which are cost-effective and fast to produce. This is expected to complement our video-based visualisation strategy. Moving to current trading conditions. Australia's residential property market remains healthy, with strong buyer demand nationally and continued house price growth. Supply has improved in Melbourne and Sydney, which is supporting strong new listings activity, while limited stock in other cities is resulting in some vendors delaying the listing of their properties. We continue to expect national residential buyer listing volumes to be broadly flat on last year's healthy market. While listings declined in Q1 due to very strong prior year listings, comparables will become easier as we progress through the remainder of the year, particularly in Q4. October listing volumes were down 3% year on year, with Melbourne up two and Sydney increasing by 6%. The group continues to target double digit residential buyer growth including a 7% Premier Plus price rise. As always, geomix will be a swing factor, and the magnitude of yield growth may be impacted by geomix movements across the remainder of the year. Positive operating jaws are targeted. Group core operating expenses are expected to increase mid-single digits, which reflects high single-digit growth for Australia, the consolidation of iGUIDE, divestment of PropTiger, and exiting Housing Edge. Excluding those items on an underlying basis Group cost growth is expected to be high single digit. EBITDA losses in India will be impacted by exiting housing edge and are expected in the range of 40 to 45 million. And contributions from associates losses are expected to improve modestly compared to the prior year. On a final note, we're very pleased with the performance we've delivered so far this year and our business is in great shape. Comps will get easier as we move through the remainder of the financial year and market fundamentals are healthy. Leveraging REA's unparalleled data capabilities, our exciting product pipeline will continue to harness the power of AI to further enhance consumer engagement, provide increased value to our customers, and drive growth across our portfolio of assets. I'll pause there. Operator, we're now open for questions.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. We ask that you please limit yourself to two questions. Please stand by while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question is going to come from the line of Kane Hannon with Goldman. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Kane Hannon Good morning, guys, and thank you for the questions. Cam, we appreciate you only started this week, but I'm sure you did the due diligence and had some broad thoughts you can hopefully talk to. So my two questions, just firstly, REA's target for double-digit yield growth going forward, you know, against the backdrop of CoStar, ACCC, even AI. I mean, are these targets something that you think is still achievable going forward? And just talk about, you know, if they are, what is giving you that confidence?

Yeah, thanks, Cain. Thanks for the question, and good to be here. Look, I've only been here a few days, as you say, but REA is an incredible business and it's got incredible growth drivers and growth levers and my intention is to continue that growth. So, as I said, fourth day in, everything I've observed to date tells me that that commitment is absolutely deliverable and I don't see any need to change that at this stage at all.

Awesome. And then secondly, I mean, it's helpful AI audience stats you gave or was given in the presentation, partly maybe a function of the data quality that ChatGPT has in this market. Obviously seeing what's happening in the US with GPT and Zillow. Talk about how you would frame the risks, the opportunities of doing something with ChatGPT in this marketplace, whether there's a first mover advantage as well.

Yeah, I'll give you some broader comments first and then I can talk a little bit about that and maybe hand that to Janelle too if you want. But look, I'd say three days on the ground here and it's certainly a topic that features in the business. REA has been exploring AI for a long time and I can see the investments growing in the business and the business is really focused on it and it absolutely has the right culture of innovation in the environment that we're going into. I'd say more generally speaking, property purchase for all of us is the single largest and most complex transaction that any of us will enter into. And it can be quite a physical process in part at least too. So REA is a strong and trusted brand. It's strength of direct traffic. It's unique data and insights. It's product development capability around things like visualization and search amongst many, many other things. I think they're really important in underpinning the long-term digital marketplace opportunity that we have. And so I think when it comes to things like open AI, et cetera, it's a net-net opportunity for REA. But we need to continue to proceed with a great deal of thoughtfulness and consideration But we do as a business need to press forward and leverage the technology that's emerging to benefit our customers and consumers overall.

Yeah, look, just to add to that, Cain, we have been investing in AI for a long time and we have continued to increase substantially our investment in AI. I would say that all fits within the guidance we provide around that high single digit cost growth. And you've seen some of the things we've been putting into market around consumer experience. We've got AI highlights on listings. We've got AI overviews for property owners. We are getting productivity benefits. So there's a lot of activity happening on AI, and the team's pretty excited about the overall opportunity from it.

Awesome. Thanks very much, guys.

Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Eric Choi with Bernie Joy. Your line is open. Go ahead.

oh good morning hey cam hey janelle and good results especially the yield um sorry i know i'm supposed to ask about the quarter as well but just like um kane i guess given it's your first preso camp do you mind if i just do a few follow-ups on the strategy um so sorry to to to kind of re-ask the question but just on those long-term targets um you said you're committed to the double-digit yield can can you confirm your committed to the positive jaws and just pressing on that a little bit. If we see a scenario where Domain tries to outspend REA on marketing and slows its price increases, is that all factored into the double-digit yield and positive jaws as well? And sorry, just pressing on AI a little bit, just like, I guess... Looking at all the comments from the global classifieds, there's probably a range of views on whether that's a risk or opportunity. Obviously, Zillow is integrating. CoStar wants to capitalize on GEO, and I think Autotrader this morning said it wants to integrate too, but it's wary of sharing too much data. So just a direct question on what extent REA intends to integrate with the AI platforms. And sorry, just because those are follow-ups, can I throw in the last one? Just the other topic that's kicking around, Cam, is just on M&A. And my question is, even if there was any M&A, would there be quite a high bar? Just because if I look at what you did in CAR, you really only did EPS secretive deals that kind of lifted the long-term growth. And if I look at your LTIs, there's sort of a double digit, at least historically, EPS growth target as well. So just a question on how high that bar is for potential M&A. Thanks very much.

Thanks, Matt. I'll try and remember all those questions. But I'll start with the last one first. When we think about M&A, there's a number of things that get thought about. And clearly, EPS secretion is at the top of the list, but it's not the only thing on the list. And, you know, I mean, there are transactions that... I've done in the past that are about the strategic capabilities that we can acquire and bring to the business to execute on certain priorities that we have. So I would say that EPS is just one of the things that we would consider, but certainly other things like strategic fit, ability to acquire intellectual property, ability to acquire technology that may get us to a place that we want to get to faster would also be at the top of that list as well. You mentioned just around AI and AI integration and intent around that. I think I mentioned to Kane, my view would be that we have incredible data and insights in this business, and we need to protect that data and insights that we have. And any integrations that we would do, we would do with great thought and great consideration. And, you know, not just from a consumer and a customer perspective, but also from the point of view of ensuring that REA retains its IP and its data in that integration. And I can't remember your first question, mate. I'm working back with... Oh, okay. So look, I mean, this business has great operating leverage. It has the ability to manage cost well, and it's done that. I've observed it doing that over many, many years. And from a pricing perspective, it prices to value. And when I look at value, I look at what's in the product pipeline that the business has to deliver. to customers over the coming months and years. And I'm super impressed with the value that's coming forward. So yeah, I put all that together and go, I don't see any reason why there would be any need to change that perspective.

Thanks, Cam. I phrased that first question badly. There was a small one in there going, is REA basically running its own race as well? Which means even if that man goes hard on marketing and kind of lowers its pricing, Are you running your own race and still committing to that double-digit yield and positive jaws?

Yes, we are. We are absolutely running our own race. We're focusing on our strategy and continuing to win, being the number one player. As we've always said, we can manage our costs up and down, as we've done. We've got more flexibility in our cost base than ever with the work that we've been doing around our offshore team in India, as well as our back office in Manila. One of the benefits, another benefit of AI will be productivity benefits, which we can then use to reinvest or go faster with our product roadmap. So we think we've got lots of flexibility.

Thanks, Janelle. Thanks, Ken.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Ancel Rykowski with E&P. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Morning, Cam. Morning, Janelle. So my first question is broadly around new products and then specifically about 3D virtual tools. Are you able to talk about how important 3D virtual tools are as a product and as part of the offering? You've obviously announced the acquisition of a majority interest in Planetar. Do you think you're at some disadvantage to domain given CoStar can deploy Matterport technology into domain listings. So is this potentially an area which will require further product development? So that's my first question. Do you want the second one now or should I wait for the answer before giving it to you?

Wait until this one's answered if you can. I can indeed.

So look, when we think about our product roadmap, we've got a pretty exciting product roadmap of which visualization is a major component of that. of which video is probably our most important component. And then 3D tours is an interesting thing. At the moment, less than 4% of listings have a 3D tour on it. But as the market evolves, we want to make sure we're there. We're pretty excited about the investment in iGUIDE. The cameras are cheap and easy to use, and they give a quick 3D tour. So the team are great. We like the cultural fit. It's fair to say we've got We're working through our product rollout and we'll share that at the right time. But it's just part of our overall offering, not the main game in town.

Okay. I mean, I'm just conscious that CoStar, as they would, they've obviously made a big thing out of rolling matapults out on their liftings in the US. They've signalled they're going to do that in the Australian market as well. Do you see that as a big threat? It doesn't sound like you do.

No, we don't think it's a big threat, no. But one of the other things I would say is, We want to partner with the photography networks as we roll out iGUIDE into Australia.

Okay, got it. Thank you. And the second question is around the India business. Are you able to talk to how you think about the longer term viability of that business following the housing edge closure? I mean, I'm conscious that's one part of the operations that was profitable and obviously that's no longer going to exist. Does it become more difficult to continue to operate that business and especially taking into account the India market is highly competitive?

I'll take that. I mean, my views on that, Encho, is India is a huge market and there's a great opportunity there if we can leverage it. The changes that have been made, I think overall it gives the business the ability to concentrate on its core I think Perry, who's a new CEO into the business, he's a great guy, comes from great technical heritage and he's had to make some changes in his exec team and he's bringing in some great talent, which is incredible. So I think from my point of view, it's a marathon, not a sprint with some of these businesses. And if I look at India and look at its impact or contribution to the overall EBITDA of the business, it's totally immaterial. So I think it gives us long-term optionality. But yeah, I mean, I guess that's my view on where it's at.

Okay, great. Thanks, Ken. Thanks, Janelle.

Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Lucy Hung with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, Karen and Janelle. I've got two questions as well. So just firstly, I mean, CoStar have talked about recently how they're looking to launch some of their kind of software and commercial offerings into the Australian market within the next 18 months. Just wondering, you know, how you're thinking about, I guess, some of these offerings that they have, and does this place any upwards pressure on your need to continue to invest in, I guess, AI and software development then?

Yeah, look, we're the number one player in commercial, and we intend to defend that. We've redirected investment to the commercial business over the past year. We've got new products coming out. We've also got a business called Aerialytics, which does commercial data. So we think we're well-placed to defend against anything that CoStar might be doing. And our view doesn't change around our product investment for the whole company.

Yeah. No, that makes sense. And then I noticed some of you guys participated in a small funding round in the UK in a new AI-driven portal called JITI. So just wondering if there's any kind of early learnings there that you think could be quite interesting to bring back to the Australian market?

Yeah, look, this is part of when we look globally around the world that players are doing interesting things. And we like the JITI team. They've built an AI-native business. So we've taken a small stake in that business, and we're sort of early days in sharing information backwards and forwards with them. So as we go through that education process, if anything comes up that's relevant for us, we'll put it into our product suite.

Great. Thank you.

Thanks, Lucy. Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Bob Chen with JP Morgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, morning, guys. Just a couple of questions for me and maybe one on AMAX. I think you called out, Janelle, one of the stats around a really strong penetration on AMAX. I just wanted to understand, like, how should we think about the margin profile of AMAX, given it also contributes to a bit of a step up in your cog line item as well?

Yeah, look, we're really pleased with the penetration of AMAX as part of our re-contracting and pricing in June this year. So look, we've more than doubled our penetration in AMEX, which has given us a healthy uptick in yield and supported that 13% yield growth. Yes, that does come with COGS, but it's still a very, very healthy margin product. We don't share the margin, but we are pleased with it and very pleased with how that product's been going.

Okay, sure. And then just... maybe thinking about sort of OPEX for the business more broadly, I think you also mentioned some earlier comments around leveraging AI for productivity. Are there any sort of interesting stats that you could sort of provide on what sort of level of productivity gains you've achieved to date or target to achieve with leveraging AI?

Yeah, look, it's hard to give a stat on absolute productivity. We know there's things like our coders are using about 30% of GitHub coding using AI. In reality, though, there's a couple of things to note. Firstly, you've got to pay for AI so that doesn't come for free. And then secondly, with those productivity benefits, we've got choices. We can either take that to the bottom line or we can reinvest in speed of further product enhancement and rollout. And at the moment, that's our That's our goal is to continue to enhance our speed and delivery. And whilst we're doing that, we're keeping open jaws. So that's our focus.

All right, great. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Sriharsh Singh with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, Janelle, Cam. Two questions from my side. One, the 6% yield growth. and they delivered on top of the 10% price increase. Is it possible to disaggregate that between different drivers, i.e. high subscription costs and then benefit from add-on products like AMX and Lux listings? My second question is, there's a little bit of confusion when I look at the Sensitiva data, because as for Sensitiva data, at least for the last two or three months, domain has overtaken REA in terms of new app downloads. And my question is, is that consistent with your internal data and what could explain the difference? Thank you.

Yeah, look, we don't give the split of the makeup of the extra yield growth. We were very, very happy with delivering 13% yield. But I'll bucket the main drivers of the growth. So first of all was the 7% price. Then the next biggest driver was the benefit we got from yield from our increase in AMACs. And then following that, it's subscription growth, a bit more penetration, and a little bit in lux. And there was no geomix impact on yield for the quarter. So, you know, very, very strong yield result, which we're very pleased with. SensorTower, we don't look at SensorTower too much around app downloads. Unclear what's going on there. You know, I would just point you back to the core around our audience outcomes. You know, we've got record audience numbers October, we had 163 million visits to REA. And I think the key point, it's the time on site. Think about our time on site. We've got 38 minutes on average per user. And then if you look at our members, which is another thing we're heavily focused on, is growing our engaged audience. It's over two hours and 20 minutes. So it's about time on site and overall audience growth is very strong. So we're super pleased.

That's great. Thank you.

Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Frasier McLeish with MST Markute. Markute, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much, and welcome, Cam. Just a kind of, again, obviously a high level for you at the moment, given you've only been there a short time, but when you kind of look at the level of investment in REA or the REA has been making over the years. I mean, I guess there's always the opportunity to spend more and drive things harder in this type of business. Do you think, kind of it's about right where at the level it is and the sort of, you know, the investment has been made, or do you think it's something you'd potentially want to sort of ramp up a bit? That was my first question. And then just one for Janelle. Last year, I think the 14% yield growth stayed consistent right through the year, you know, on that Q1 level. And, you know, should we expect anything different this year? Is there anything that could cause that yield growth to, you know, other than geomix to move up or down through the year? Thanks.

Thanks, Bryce. Look, in terms of investment, from what I've seen, and it comes down to the areas that the company's investing in as well, you know, Janelle mentioned commercial real estate before. You know, Everything I've seen suggests that the business can manage the level of investment that it currently has inside the envelope that it has as well. So I don't see any need for any change in terms of the direction of that investment at this stage would be my response.

And I think on yield growth, I think the 13% is a good guide, just knowing that, as we always say, geomix, as you flagged, can move up and down. So that would be my caution until... because Melbourne and Sydney have been very strong and are absolute listing places.

Sorry, just a wee bit of detail on that. Would there be an opportunity, for example, to get more pool subscription penetration as we go through the year, or is that kind of set if you're going to take it up going into July?

No, you can still have more subscription take-up with pro. We were very, very pleased with our pro subscription take-up, and that supported strong subs growth overall, but it's probably in a smaller magnitude than what we've already recognized.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Suraj Ahmed with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Morning Cam, Janelle. Janelle, maybe just one question for you, just on that eel growth, right? Sounds like it, I mean, it feels like it's better than you expected in August. Can you just confirm that and what's really driving it? And just on Fraser's question, if Lark's penetration is doubling, seems like it's improving, shouldn't we be seeing a bit of improvement in eel going forward?

Thanks. Yes. Thanks, Viraj. I think eel growth, we were... Just cautious because of geomix. We just weren't sure how strong Melbourne and Sydney were going to be compared to the rest of the country, and that's ended up being quite strong, and that's supported overall geo being flat. In a normal time, we would normally say geomix would be sort of a half to a 1% headwind, so it has been neutral for Q1, which is good. And then Lux, we were really pleased with Lux take-up, and it's exactly on track with where we thought it was going to be it is coming off a very, very low base. So from a magnitude of yield growth, it's unlikely to be a substantial driver between Q1 and the rest of the year.

Thank you.

Thank you. And I would now like to hand the conference back over to Cam McIntyre for closing remarks.

Thank you very much. Thank you again for joining this morning. As I said before, Super pleased to be here as part of the REA team. And they're a fantastic team. And I'm really excited about the year we have ahead and look forward to seeing you all early next year. So unless we see you in between then and now. But thanks very much for joining.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.